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Friday, November 16, 2012

jenkins hot pepper jellies review and giveaway contest

Jenkins Jellies: if you love spicy, you'll love these!

My sister Babs used to make a subtly spiced green pepper jelly that I loved; I haven't had it in years, but I snarfed it up during my pre-gan [pre-vegan] days on crackers with cream cheese, which balanced out the heat. So I was excited when the nice folks at Jenkins Jellies sent me four of their spicy jams to try. I didn't realize how much I had missed Babs' green pepper jelly.

I sampled each jelly 3 different ways – solo via the serving spoon attached to the jar, on crackers and then on crackers with a sliver of Daiya cheddar cheese [The package suggests serving the jellies with cheese or using them as marinade and salad dressing bases]. Bruce was here, finishing up some last-minute kitchen details, so he also taste-tested the jellies.

Each jar comes with a useful mini spoon decorated with a cute-but-hard-to-remove "Stir me" sticker

The lowdown:Fiery Figs: This was the mildest of the bunch and I will definitely use this one as a seitan or tempeh marinade base and a salad dressing "zinger." It was figgy and denser than the other jellies, and its heat was more of an aftertaste in this version. It was okay on its own, but really sang when served on a cracker, especially with cheese.

Passion Fire: This is a passionfruit based jelly, slightly sour with a pucker that reminded me of Southest Asian flavors. In terms of heat, both Bruce and I agreed it was hotter than the Hell Fire Jelly. This one tasted great as-is, atop crackers and served with cheese.

Hell Fire Pepper Jelly: This is a pepper-based jelly, slightly sweet and spicy, but not overly hot, so don't let the name scare you off. The burn is mostly in the aftertaste. This jelly was better atop cheese and crackers.

Grava Brava: Sweet, sour and relish-like, this one tasted best atop crackers. It didn't pair so well with the cheddar, but it certainly might work better with a milder non-dairy cheese. I'd like to try it on sandwiches and maybe even swirled in some coconut-based soups.

My favorite?
I liked Guava Brava best. Its flavor was the most complex of the four: slightly sweet, slightly sour and somewhat reminiscent of a good chutney. It was spicy enough, but not so spicy that you could not taste the guava in the product name.

I'm not a big fan of product-based cookbooks, but The Jenkins Jellies ladies have published one called Sweet Heat. It includes lots of good-looking recipes and ideas using the jellies, and an intro by Gwyneth Paltrow. Of course it's an omnivore's cookbook, but if you're like me, you automatically translate omni recipes to vegan, anyway. I spied a hummus recipe in it that includes the Hell Fire Jelly – definitely on my "to try" list.

Contest time!

What better way to kick off the weekend than with a contest? The nice Jenkins Jellies ladies are giving away four full-size jars of their spicy jellies to one lucky US winner. All you need to do is leave a comment with which one you think you'll like best. You'll get extra chances to win by following me and Jenkins Jellies on Twitter [@theurbanvegan and @jenkinsjellies]. I'll announce the winner early next week. Good luck!

Last chance to sponsor my race for Team Vegan

The Rothman 8K is tomorrow. I'm running it as part of Team Vegan Philly, and if you sponsor me, all donations will be DOUBLED up to the start, to benefit animals voa Philadelphia's Humane League. If you'd like to help, you can donate here. Thanks and happy weekend!